They say the devil is in the details. But in Durham, the Blue Devils are in the details—and numbers.
145
College basketball's AP Poll on the men's side was released Monday morning with no surprise at which school reigned atop the list: Duke. The Blue Devils defeated Gonzaga, the previously top-ranked team, Friday night in an intense match that many predicted the Bulldogs to win after they defeated then-No. 2 UCLA just days prior.
Holding the top spot in the rankings is not a foreign concept to Duke. With this week's ranking, the Blue Devils are actually extending their record number of weeks atop the AP Poll to 145. UCLA is the closest team to the Blue Devils with 134 weeks at the top.
Even so, the Blue Devils will likely have to wait before adding another week to their record after dropping their first contest of the season Tuesday night to Ohio State.
26
Women’s basketball guard Shayeann Day-Wilson scored 26 points and shot 8-of-10 from beyond the arc in Duke’s victory over Troy Sunday afternoon to earn ACC Freshman of the Week honors. In assisting the Blue Devils to the win, Day-Wilson became only the second freshman player in program history to score at least 26 points, register five rebounds and four assists in a single match, with Alana Beard registering the same feat in the 2000-01 season.
Her eight made threes are also tied for the most three-pointers by a Blue Devil in a single game, with only senior Miela Goodchild and Rebecca Greenwell having equaled that number. Day-Wilson broke one more record with her big day against the Trojans, becoming just the third player in the nation to garner that statline and hit eight triples in a game since the 2009-10 season, per GoDuke.
0-8
Duke football finished its season Saturday with a 47-10 blowout loss against Miami. With the loss, the Blue Devils ended conference play with an 0-8 record, winless in the ACC for the first time since the 2007-08 season.
Though the Blue Devils managed to amass three wins early in the season during the nonconference slate, the team's conference struggles and the consistent magnitude of each loss was enough for some big changes to go down Sunday. In a press release Sunday afternoon, athletic director Nina King announced Duke's agreement to part with David Cutcliffe, Duke's head coach since 2007. Following the announcement, starting quarterback Gunnar Holmberg entered the transfer portal, joining wide receiver Jake Bobo and safety Lummie Young IV.
10-0
Duke wrestling competed at the Boilermaker Duals competition Sunday, earning a 2-1 record to open its duals season. At the event, hosted by Purdue, the Blue Devils defeated Bellarmine 35-10 and Northern Illinois 25-17 but lost to No. 20 Purdue, 28-15. Though Duke lost to the Boilermakers, three wrestlers went undefeated in the competition: redshirt seniors Matt and Josh Finesilver, along with junior Jonah Niesenbaum.
With this battle in the books, Matt is now 10-0 in competition this season. He currently checks in at No. 7 for the 174 weight bracket nationally. Having taken a break from wrestling at Duke for two years, the redshirt senior is getting his name out there to be competitive as an NCAA qualifier again, and potentially an All-American as well.
.552
Duke volleyball wrapped up its season Friday at its senior day match, a third showdown against North Carolina since the two teams competed in September and October. The Blue Devils lost the game 3-2 but managed to win two sets to improve on their pair of 3-0 losses against the Tar Heels earlier in the season.
The contest withstood the typical three-set narrative, with the two teams tying through four sets to take the match the distance. Junior Gracie Johnson led the night offensively, registering 23 kills, and senior Ade Owokoniran followed with 14. With a 16-13 record this season, Duke ended its year with an overall win percentage of .552, its best mark since the 2018 season, when it ended with a .571 overall record.
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